Benefits
to the University
Academic institutions can benefit financially and otherwise by extending
their educational mission to include the booming senior population.
Financial benefits
- Revenue from sale of land, or from long-term ground lease.
- Equity in the project and annual payments for services
provided (for example, access to courses, access to health and recreational
programs, security, grounds/building maintenance, and shuttle transportation).
- Bequests
and donations from residents.
- Additional assets created by the project, such
as new dining options, guest rooms and meeting rooms that can also be
used by faculty and students.
- Better utilization of physical assets—for example,
classrooms, fitness centers, conference rooms, stadium seating.
- Better utilization
of intellectual assets.
Non-financial benefits
- Increased campus diversity.
- Volunteer guest lecturers and tutors.
- Employment and internship opportunities
for students.
- Opportunities for research on the lifestyle and health
aspects of aging, housing management, and dining/dietary sciences.
- Career
advice and networking opportunities stemming from seniors’ professional
contacts.
- Attractive housing option for retired and current faculty.
- Positive effect on student behavior stemming from presence
of seniors.
- Increased audience for campus cultural events.
Benefits to Seniors
Many among the upcoming wave of Baby Boomer retirees
are not attracted to their parents’ idealized options for seniors – playing
golf in Florida or living in an age-segregated leisure community in Arizona.
Campus Continuum offers active adults a combination of
benefits difficult to replicate by other means. Even buying a condo near
a college and enrolling in classes (not an option at all schools) fails to
provide the sense of community and advantages of one-stop shopping we can
offer.
Our Dean of Senior Students acts as a liaison with the
academic host and assists residents (both individually and as a group) to
take advantage
of services, including:
- Opportunities for intellectual enrichment by taking college
courses, organizing resident-directed seminars, attending campus cultural
and sport events.
- Opportunity for fulfillment through volunteer or part-time
paid work.
- Opportunities for cross-generational social interaction – facilitated
by a computer data base of skills and interests – including tutoring
and mentoring.
- Wellness
programs, making use of college fitness facilities, and possibly university
health services, particularly if associated with a university
hospital.
- Group travel planning.
- Personal care assistance provided
by home health care aides, and other aging-related services. [If demand
warrants, we may also develop on-site
assisted living and nursing facilities.]
Benefits to Society
at Large
We are mindful of the benefits to the country-at-large
created by residential communities for life-long learners.
- Provide a new,
meaningful option for the growing cadre of healthy, educated Baby
Boomers, many of whom will have
20+
years of active
retirement living.
- Reduce intergenerational friction that
develops from age-segregated residential patterns.
- Encourage transfer
of experience from the elderly to the young (and vice versa).
- Provide
mature, qualified volunteers to attack unmet social needs (among
schools, hospitals, libraries,
for example).
